How Michelle Rodriguez Helped the Original Fast & Furious Avoid Sexism

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Michelle Rodriguez was an integral part in ensuring that The Fast and the Furious avoided sexist tropes. Rodriguez has always been a proponent for the Fast & Furious franchise's female characters, tweeting in 2017 that she hoped future installments of the franchise would show the female characters more. In the films, Rodriguez plays Letty, a skilled mechanic and street racer, appearing in all but two of the movies in the main arm of the franchise.

Rodriguez's character has had a tumultuous journey in the Fast & Furious world, helping her eventual husband Dom in the first few films. When Letty seemingly dies and is subsequently resurrected, she comes back with amnesia before regaining her memory and rejoining the team more confident than ever. Rodriguez's character has taken on a more prominent role in the franchise since, acting as Dom's partner in crime and in life. It wasn't always meant to be that way, though.

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In a new oral history from EW, Rodriguez and her co-star, Jordana Brewster, detail how Rodriguez almost quit the film. Brewster says that Rodriguez read the script and, when she didn't like what she read, she flipped it. Read what Brewster said about her co-star below:

When Michelle [Rodriguez] read her role, she was like, 'No, I'm not playing that.' And then she changed it completely. It went from a trophy girlfriend to this really layered character.

Rodriguez dives a little deeper into what happened, describing the ways in which her own experience helped her make the Hollywood writers see that Dom and Letty's relationship wouldn't work if she was relegated to being a trophy girlfriend. Rodriguez threatened to leave the film if they didn't change it and, luckily, they worked it out. Check out what Rodriguez said below:

It was a reality check for them to realize that the streets don't work like that. You don't just get with a guy because he's hot. There's a hierarchy there. Can that hot guy get beat up by who you're dating? If he can, then you don't date him, because why would you want to lose the hierarchy? In order to keep it real, I had to school them: 'I know you guys like Hollywood and all that, but if you want it to be realistic, this is how it really works, and I'm not going to be a slut in front of millions of people, so you're going to lose me if you don't change this.' And they figured it out.

Rodriguez's latest reveal mirrors another problem she had with The Fast and the Furious' script. Initially, Letty was going to be in the middle of a love triangle with Dom and Paul Walker's character, Brian O'Connor. Fortunately for all involved, Rodriguez's criticisms were heard, despite her being relatively new to the industry, and Letty became the strong character fans have come to know and love. It's safe to say that the Fast & Furious films wouldn't be the same without her.

With the franchise heading into its endgame after F9, Letty will continue to be an integral member of the team. The franchise's themes of family only serve to highlight the ways in which the team and the movies themselves have overcome various obstacles. The Fast and the Furious kicked off one of the most successful franchises of all time and that is thanks, in part, to Rodriguez's willingness to advocate for her character and create a stronger female lead that is at the forefront of the films.